As Lindberg has argued, a systematic, goal-directed, programme for sanctification through guidelines for daily living and self-reflection was characteristic of English theology. For Venning as for Joseph Hall, piety was rooted in the mind, engaged the affections and thereby shaped behaviour. This approach to godly living was not distinctive to puritanism but shared with the piety of Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), reflecting a common heritage in Medieval devotion. Indeed, for puritans, ‘Practical Christianity was the centrepiece of theology, not knowing God as an end in itself.’ This approach is illustrated by Lewis Bayly's The Practice of Pietie (c.1612), which begins with a study of the Trinity before outlining the believer's devotional duties. Indeed, puritans such as Nicholas Bifield (1578–1622) in his Rules of a Holy Life (1619); Edward Reyner (1600–60) in Precepts for Christian Practice (1656); and Richard Bernard (1568–1642) in his A Weekes Worke and a Worke for every Weeke (1616), which was still being published in 1650, set out guidelines for godly, daily living. Puritan theology emphasised the practical, ‘fusing theory and practice, head and heart’ in the pursuit of godliness: an approach illustrated by Venning.

Above all, puritans were concerned not with predestination, although usually fundamental to his or her theology, nor Covenant, although that probably constituted the framework by which he or she understood God's dealings with humankind, but with godliness. In fact, Packer defined the puritan ‘vision’ of the Christian life as a ‘Quest for Godliness.’ For Venning likewise, godliness was of vital importance. It is therefore the first of the three major elements of his theology – as reflected by emphases in his published works – that we shall consider. Most significantly, as I shall propose, is the way in which it illustrates the importance of the pursuit of happiness as a theme in Venning's theology.